


Transformers: The Golden Age (overview)

by PrimeRadiant



Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One), Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers Generation One
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-22
Updated: 2020-08-22
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:14:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26051719
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrimeRadiant/pseuds/PrimeRadiant
Summary: An outline for a set of stories I'm writing in Cybertron's distant past, its Golden Age.Wars rage against neighboring robotic empires vying for control of a younger, untamed Cybertron.Aristocratic families force their protoforms into arranged Conjunx relationships to get more and more power.A sheltered young archivist learns that the world isn't safe.A young energon miner learns that time is running out.Before there were Autobots and Decepticons, the Cybertronians learn about their past, how it joins them together, and drives them apart.





	Transformers: The Golden Age (overview)

The Golden Age

Cybertron is a transforming world. The planet itself is suspiciously-covered with rare, almost living metal, material that gives rise to self-replicating machines. At first, the machines were simple: pulleys, levers, and over millions of years, chance accidents fuse two simple machines, giving them slight advantages: perhaps a machine that can both roll and drill, or a furnace with clamps to consume smaller machines.

Tens of millions of years pass. A crucial evolutionary advantage emerges: two machine forms fuse in symbiosis, but are each able to maintain its identity, and can convert from one form to another. Over still more time, some of these creatures develop a meta-identity, which sees itself as one creature with multiple forms. This ability to adapt along with rich naturally-occurring energy resources gave rise to the modern Cybertronian, approximately 600 million years ago.

Over the next half-billion years, these Cybertronians began to cyberform the rich world even as they themselves changed: from having abacus-like simple brains to tubes to circuits to semiconductor minds, culminating in quantum-computing units called brain modules. This abrupt leap in consciousness led to an awareness of themselves as living creatures and the beginnings of centralized societies. The earliest known city-state, Budia, began to dominate other energy-harvesting groups across the planet.

100 million years ago, the Budians had nearly conquered two-thirds of the globe, a world that literally glowed with a golden hue to the immense energy resources. With radiation from the nearby star Hadean, these resources on Cybertron were refined into energon, imbuing the Budians with incredible strength and long lifetimes. Only three major species managed to contend with the Budians: the partially-organic Gobo-thals, driven nearly to extinction, the Strela-Malignus Empire, and the guerrilla Diakrons, who assail the outer edges of the burgeoning Budian Empire.

The Budians created the line of Primes to both unify their nation and unify against their enemies. The first Primes were simple citizens who fought campaigns and later retired. Caelus Prime, the Skyward Prime, was mysteriously slain during a battle with the Diakrons, which threw the Budians into a crisis. It was decided that the Primes would remain a permanent fixture of the government, guided by a Council. His successor, Ultima Prime, chose to divide her power between herself and two others, Nova Secundus and Sentinel Secundus, to prevent one Prime from having too much influence. However, Nova was favored by the Budian military, while Sentinel had the approval of the rich patrician family who controlled much of planet's energon supply.

During this time, Sage Boltax faced a smaller crisis: Cybertron had accumulated so much knowledge that it could no longer be stored! He mentors the young apprentice Orion Pax and gives him the charge of going out into the wild world, to augment his theoretical "ivory tower" knowledge with wisdom gained from experience, lest he become corrupted by the Database of knowledge without real-world context. He is assigned to spend time with Cybertron's Greatest Warrior, Ultra Magnus, but along the way, he meets A3, a patrician who was disgraced for daring to assist the Gobo-thals. Young Orion's mind swirls with thoughts of freedom for sentient beings...

Meanwhile, the proud energy miners, exalted across the world for their role in the prosperous energy economy, discover a horrifying truth: Cybertron's energy is in fact limited, and time is short before it runs out. The Miner Chiefs conspire to hide this news from the Prime, but one young miner, named after a bomb, refuses to hide and condemn Cybertron to a slow decay, and seeks out a famous orator and satirist named Starscream, whose ability to speak, convince, and coerce is legendary...

Other cast:

Mirage: a rich patrician who is forced to become Conjunx with another rich robot to solidify power for his Rubsign ("clan"). But his Conjunx, Dealer, is selling weapons to the Diakrons in secret...

Prowl: leads the campaign against the Diakrons, able to track hundreds of objects at a time, but misses what is right in front of him,

Skywarp, Whisper, Airazor, Slingshot, and Dirge: members of the crack squad "Finders-Seekers", renowned across the world for their fighting prowess,

Science Team Six: Mixmaster, Brainstorm, Wheeljack, Nautica, Jetfire, and Bitstream,

Thunderwing and Hot Rod: two brothers-in-arms from opposite poles of the planet, both possessed by visions of a power beyond their understanding deep within Cybertron,

Hauler: mute from birth, supported by her street vendor friend, Bluestreak.


End file.
